What started as a dream scenario for Kentucky basketball fans quickly evolved into a rather routine Arkansas victory Monday night.
After leading by only three at halftime, the No. 23 Razorbacks pulled away for a 92-62 win over Oakland with a dominant second half inside Bud Walton Arena.
That may seem like your basic 30-point blowout of a team ranked outside the top 200 in the NET, but it had a little extra meaning because it was a rematch between John Calipari and the team that beat him in his final game with the Wildcats.
Despite his new school being ranked and Oakland being a shell of what it was a year ago when it won the Horizon League regular-season and conference tournament titles before its first-round upset of Kentucky, the Hall of Fame coach admitted to being apprehensive about facing his good friend Greg Kampe, who’s in his 41st season leading the Golden Grizzlies.
“He begged me,” Calipari said about how the intriguing game was added to his first non-conference slate at Arkansas. “And I said, ‘Greg, don’t. You just beat me in the NCAA Tournament. Now you want to beat me again?’ But he said, ‘Cal, I really need the game.’ He’s a friend. ‘Okay.’ But all day today and yesterday, I’m thinking, ‘Why did I do this?’”
The Razorbacks were 17-point favorites, according to BetSaracen, but struggled to build a lead larger than one or two possessions early on. In fact, Oakland actually briefly took a two-point lead late in the half before heading to the locker room down just 42-39.
There would be no repeat embarrassment for Calipari, though. His squad kept his foot on the gas, shooting 63.3% from the field — including 7 of 13 (53.8%) from deep — in the second half, while simultaneously clamping down on the Golden Grizzlies.
Oakland got virtually whatever it wanted down low early on, scoring 30 first-half paint points, but Arkansas limited it to just 12 in the second half. That caused Kampe’s team to abandon its game plan and start chunking up 3s, where it went just 2 of 17 for the game, including 1 of 12 after halftime.
“We took a little bit more pride in our post defense,” Adou Thiero said. “Kind of just keeping them out of the paint, showing fight and showing them they were going to have to work for these points.”
Thanks to that defensive adjustment, any Kentucky fans tuning into the ESPN2 broadcast with hopes of seeing their former coach suffer a similar fate as last March probably turned it off midway through the second half.
More importantly, Calipari had an ulterior motive for scheduling the game. It was a great learning experience — and final non-conference tune-up, despite Oakland’s struggles — for his team that is just now starting to gel together.
“It was a good game for us (because) we had to play against zone,” Calipari said. “Every game you play in the preseason is to prepare you for league play, so now if someone throws a zone at us, I’m feeling pretty comfortable.”
Here are a few other key takeaways from the Arkansas vs Oakland game…
Oakland Knocked Out With 1-2 Punch
The stars of the night were Arkansas’ two best players so far this season, as Boogie Fland and Adou Thiero nearly single-handedly — in separate halves — led the Razorbacks to victory.
Not only did they combine for 44 points, but they also dished out 12 assists. Even when factoring out their assists to each other, the duo accounted for 63 points — one more than the 62 scored by Oakland’s entire team.
Thiero led the charge in the first half, scoring 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting. He was relentless in attacking the basket when his teammates got him the ball around the elbow against the Golden Grizzlies’ zone defense. Many times, he got the ball while already moving toward the goal.
“We call it driving the catch,” Calipari said. “So as that ball is coming to him, he’s running at the ball, driving the catch. And when he does that, the way the rules are now, if anybody moves in his way as he’s driving, that’s a foul.”
That’s actually how Thiero scored all of his points after halftime, as he missed both of his shots, but made all four of his free throws. He finished the game with 20 points and 6 assists, four of which were on 3-pointers, meaning he directly played a part in 36 points.
Throw in 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, it was a stat line not seen in the SEC since Arkansas’ JD Notae went for 21-6-6-3-2 against Gonzaga in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, according to StatHead. Before that, the last two players in the conference to reach those thresholds in the same game were eventual No. 1 overall picks — LSU’s Ben Simmons in 2015-16 (twice) and Kentucky’s John Wall in 2009-10.
After scoring just 1 point in the first half and missing his first six shots, Fland picked up the scoring slack after halftime. He was almost perfect, going 9 of 10 from the field, and scored 23 points in the second half. That includes going 5 of 5 from deep.
“He said, ‘It was my eye,’ in the first half, so I told him he needs to shoot like this the rest of the season then,” Calipari said while closing one of his eyes. “So your eye in the second half just became better? They all laughed. I did say it in the huddle, he should shoot like that.”
Fland finished with 6 assists and notched his third turnover-free game of the year in a team-high 36 minutes, furthering his case as one of the best freshman point guards in UA history.
Calipari knows a thing or two about stellar point guard play, as well, and has been pretty impressed with his latest five-star talent.
“There are times he’s really special, and then there are other times…stinky,” Calipari said. “But it’s his choice. When he competes and plays at a high level, he’s as good as anybody. When he goes and it’s the cool stuff, awful.”
Freshman Duo Coming on Strong
With a nine-man rotation that has yet to play a game at 100% strength, Arkansas has almost been forced to play its other two freshmen more than maybe originally expected.
Luckily for the Razorbacks, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond III are developing nicely and turned in solid performances against Oakland. They combined for 25 points on an efficient 9 of 12 shooting, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals.
It’s what doesn’t show up in the box score that Calipari has been most pleased with, though.
“When you watch them, what do you see? Energy, effort, diving on the floor, mixing it up, good size, long,” Calipari said. “But the biggest thing they give you is a spirited effort. Their energy is contagious. Both of them.”
While Richmond has pretty consistently brought the hustle he was already known for, Knox has been perhaps the biggest revelation late in the non-conference slate, finally showcasing why he was known as a bucket-getter coming out of high school.
Taking over as a starter in Johnell Davis’ absence, he’s scored in double figures for three straight games, including a 17-point outing against the Golden Grizzlies.
Highlighted by Monday’s 3-for-5 performance, Knox has knocked down a 3-pointer in five straight games and is 10 of 24 (41.7%) since starting the year 1 of 15.
“I’m really happy that Karter got this opportunity to go play through some mistakes and do stuff,” Calipari said. “He needed it. He’s a freshman and he’s playing the way we’re asking him to play. He wasn’t early in the year, now he is.”
Over his last three games, Knox is averaging 14.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists in about 24 minutes. However, it’s worth noting that all three opponents – UCA, North Carolina A&T and Oakland – are ranked outside the top 200 on KenPom. The lowest-ranked SEC team is South Carolina at No. 66.
The Still Short-Handed Hogs
Despite a nine-day layoff, Johnell Davis was held out for his second straight game as Arkansas continues to allow his wrist to heal. He missed extensive time during the preseason with the injury, but had played in both exhibitions and averaged 30.3 minutes over the first 11 games of the season.
Asked if he’d be available for the Razorbacks’ SEC opener on Saturday, Calipari kept it short and sweet: “I don’t know yet.”
That left Arkansas with just eight rotational players against Oakland and even one of them wasn’t at full strength, as Jonas Aidoo played through an illness. Afterward, Calipari opened his postgame presser by saying he “probably shouldn’t have played him.”
Even though he was under the weather, Aidoo gave the Razorbacks some strong minutes down low early on and scored 6 points on 3 of 5 shooting in 16 minutes.
Up Next for Arkansas Basketball
The non-conference slate is over for Arkansas basketball. It now jumps head-first into SEC play with a trip to Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday.
Tennessee is 12-0 and will likely improve to 13-0 when it hosts Norfolk State on Tuesday. That is good for the No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll, but the Volunteers entered Monday at No. 2 in the NET rankings, No. 3 on KenPom and No. 4 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index.
Not including this year’s exhibition win over Kansas at Bud Walton Arena, it will be the 15th time the Razorbacks have faced the AP No. 1 team. They own a 3-11 record in those games, but have won the last two — at home against Auburn and in the NCAA Tournament against Gonzaga, both in 2022.
This will be just the third true road game against an AP No. 1 team in UA history. Arkansas lost to a UCLA team led by Bill Walton and coached by John Wooden back in 1973 and also lost to one of John Calipari’s best teams at Kentucky in 2015.
Other Arkansas Basketball Tidbits
- With the win, Arkansas improved to 3-0 all-time against Oakland. It also beat the Horizon League school from Michigan in 2006 and 2011.
- Malcolm Christie entered the day as Oakland’s hottest player, averaging 19.8 points and shooting 26 of 70 (37.1%) from deep over the last five games. That’s an average of 14 three-point attempts per game. Against the Razorbacks, though, he managed just 6 points on 1 of 8 shooting from beyond the arc in 30 minutes.
- D.J. Wagner knocked down another couple of 3s for Arkansas, making 2 of his 5 attempts Monday night. He’s now shooting 41.3% (19 of 46) from deep for the season — a dramatic improvement from his 29.2% three-point percentage as a freshman and Kentucky.
- Trevon Brazile turned in a complete performance with 9 points on 4 of 7 shooting, 8 rebounds and 6 blocks in 25 minutes. According to HogStats, the six blocks were the most by an Arkansas player off the bench since the late Reggie Chaney had seven at Providence in the 2019 NIT.
- Among those in attendance Monday night was JJ Andrews, a prized 2026 recruit out of Little Rock Christian who is on his official visit. The son of former Arkansas All-American offensive lineman Shawn Andrews, he is a five-star prospect and ranked No. 16 overall, according to ESPN.
Arkansas vs Oakland Highlights
Postgame Interviews
Arkansas vs Oakland Box Score
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